Dragon gridiron coach Allison leaving for Florida job

Park View High School's football coach Doug Allison is leaving the local high school this year. He is heading to Hilliard, Fla.

Allison has accepted the position of head football coach and athletic director at Hilliard Senior High in Northern Jacksonville. Allison also teaches social studies at Park View.

Allison said that the decision to leave was difficult, but came down to family. “It was heart breaking in a lot of ways,” said Allison.

“If it was just football, I don’t see where I would be leaving, but the major decision came down to family. Our families live in Florida and basically our families are from Florida and we’re about to have our fourth (child) in May and we wanted them to have a few years of being close to their grandparents.”

Allison said that he is doing whatever he can to help the Dragons find a replacement coach for their squad.

“These players are wonderful, and they deserve a great coach and I have offered the service. It sounds like people find this as a good position to come into,” he said.

“I will say that I’ve had coaches that we played and worked with that have contacted me and expressed interest, and when they found out it was my decision, they were looking to come here,” he said..

Allison said that he will have a very hard time heading to Florida but noted that the team’s successes during his time as coach were due to the hard work of his players.

“I never scored a single touchdown, that was all them and they will continue to be successful on the field as long as they do what their coach says,” he said.

“I called my assistant coaches before I told the players in the afternoon. I’ve had fantastic colleagues and administrators here, but I feel like I had the best coaching staff in the state.

“Calling each of them — it was similar to the sadness you get when you are leaving. I may not be a co-worker with them any more, but I have made lifelong friendships with my staff and they are by far the people that I have really grown close to while I was here.”

Allison took the Dragons to a 25-17 record and is the winningest coach in the last 15 years of Dragon football.